Difference between class.function() and class->function()

[turtlesavage]

What is it

[rmxhaha]

You could probably look at documentation

but here is my understanding of it

SomeClass *one = new one( someparameter ); // stored in a pointer
SomeClass two = one( someparameter ); // stored as is

// how to call them
one->function();
(*one).function();
two.function();

so I think that -> is just a short version for dereferencing from a pointer to a class.

[turtlesavage]

I would look up documentation but I don't even know what to search to find it. Also I don't think that's right, no disrespect

[MiiNiPaa]

For builtin pointers x->y is equivalent to (*x).y. Classes are free to overload either dereference or pointer member selection operators, but following the rule of least surprise they should work the same. For example look at the unique_ptr class.

[keskiverto]

I don't even know what to search to find it.

member access operators
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b930c881.aspx
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/operator_member_access